I'm going to be real with all you mayonnaise haters for a second, OK? Chances are you've ordered a fancy burger with some sort of herbed aioli and thought it delightful. Well I hate to shatter your bubble, but aioli is mayo. Well, to be 100% fair, traditionally speaking aioli has the addition of garlic, but both mayo and aioli are made up of the same basic things: oil, egg yolk, vinegar & salt. That's it. So you need to remember the next time you bite into your delicious aioli-kissed burger, that you actually LOVE mayo (the real thing). None of this store-bought-whipped-soybean-sugar-filled-crap, but the kind you can make in your own kitchen out of real ingredients. Ok ... end rant.

So remember my last post about immersion blenders? Well here are four aioli/mayo based recipes that utilize that wonderful kitchen tool. Each recipe takes 4 seconds after ingredient prep and ends up being way cheaper than buying each pre-bottled option at the grocery store.

America's Test Kitchen's note about making mayo is that it "requires careful technique" and has a short shelf life. To their first point: as long as all your ingredients are at room temperature, no. To the second, when you make a cup as opposed to a gallon-sized vat at a time, you don't really need it to last more than 2 weeks in the fridge. So get blending people!

Garlic Aioli

To modify this recipe into basic mayo, just omit the garlic. After a couple of days in the fridge, the garlic flavor really shines through. Feel free to make this as mild or garlic-filled as you please. It is important that you not sub extra virgin olive oil for the avocado oil.